DOAD – Lord Clivers

Wolfe lucked out and Wade Worthy aka Carl Yeager was captured by the state police without incident.

Wolfe cooked the trout for dinner (he cooked trout in ‘Immune to Murder’, hotdish in ‘The Black Mountain’, corned beef hash in ‘Black Orchids’, something in ‘The Father Hunt’ and probably all the meals the week that Fritz had the grippe – what other dinners does he cook in the corpus?)

Archie tells Lily that she’s just gonna have to get another writer for the biography of her father.

Harvey gets out of jail just in time to wave goodbye to Archie and Wolfe before they split.

……

As I said, this story is one of my favorites. I wondered whether having to delve into it in detail would lessen my appreciation for it. Well, no, it has not. But more than ever I realize the danger that Wolfe’s ego can be to innocent bystanders. He’s just gotta do it ‘his’ way.

I had forgotten that Wolfe and Archie weren’t completely on their own in this one. They did have Saul to check things in New York and St. Louis. And of course the mysterious Mr. MacFarland to call the state attorney general in Helena.

My theory is that Wolfe was scared that if Archie DID solve this one on his own he would be more likely to realize that he either didn’t need Wolfe after all, or at least would hit the Fat Man up for a big raise… Either that or he was tiring of Orrie pretending to be Archie back at the office…

I wonder if Archie went back to the Bar JR the next year. And if Haight arrested him for spitting on the sidewalk. Somehow I hope that Haight did’t get reelected. Does anyone think that Gil married Alma ?

I have thoroughly enjoyed leading this discussion. Other than the day after I volunteered (Oh my God, what have I done?).

And Clivers, having prudently bought up all the rotten eggs and tomatoes in town (being Nobody’s Fool) puts his hand to his ear to hear the sound of …..

Haight and Welsh and the cop from Missouri come to the Bar JR at 1:10 the next afternoon.

Wolfe and Archie have have locked the cabin and are sitting on the front porch.

Wolfe calls Haight a fool, but knowing Wolfe, it takes him a couple pages to do it.

He finally tells them that Worhty is long gone, but that Jessup has alerted the state police and stationed officers to insure that Worthy wouldn’t get far.

My problem with this is that Wolfe as much as told Worthy at breakfast that he was the murderer.

If Worthy had had a handgun in his room he could killed the lot of them.
Or put a knife to Lily’s throat at breakfast and taken her as a hostage.
Or set fire to the ranch.
Or poisoned the food for kicks.

Some killers would rather revenge themselves on Wolfe than get away. As the Balkan princess in ‘Over My Dead Body’ did.

And even if Worthy did just run, as in the story, if he had had a gun he could have taken a trooper or two down with him.

Or snuck up on Lily and the girls. (Wolfe was kind enough to tell him where the girls would be) ETC.

Just so Wolfe could poke his finger in Haight’s eye.

Oh Well …

And it occurs to me that if Archie or the local cops had taken pictures of all 15 or so possible suspects and shown them around Brodell’s hometown, St. Louis, they could have solve the case without Wolfe. (Yes, I know someone else mentioned this, too, but I wrote my summaries a couple months ago, and only revisit them to proofread and add points to ponder…)

Archie decides at breakfast that the murderer isn’t Wade or Diana, because there Wolfe is eating breakfast with them both. Wolfe drops the bombshell…

He telly Lily that they are leavin the next morning because witnesses in St. Louis have identified a picture of man wanted for for strangling a woman in Missouri. He is also the man who shot Brodell and beaned Peacock.

He tells the group that a Missouri cop is on his way and will be there the next morning.

The light goes on over Archie’s head. So it IS Wade Worthy.

He asks Lily to take Diana and Mimi to the creek to catch some trout for dinner.

Archie corners Wolfe and wants to know why they don’t take him right then and there.

Of course the answer is that Wolfe’s bloated ego won’t allow him to turn Worthy over to Haight.

Wolfe has arranged that no cars will be unwatched locally for Worthy to steal.

It seems that Lt. Noonan (another TFD reference) has a blood brother out west.

Archie asks Peggy Truett to dance. She is Peacock’s girl.

She tells him no, and berates him and Wolfe for grilling poor Sam the before.

Archie and Lily wait and dance, dance and wait, and finally Peacock shows up at 10:51.

Archie goes to inform Wolfe, and they decide that they won’t tackle Peacock that night, as they don’t want the Sheriff knowing about their interest in him.

So they go to the car, and sure enough Sam Peacock is waiting for them in the back seat.

Dead.

With his skull bashed in.

Wolfe wants to skedaddle (like in what other story(ies), class? – I can think of two or four at least), but Archie sends him for the sheriff while he guards the car.

Extra credit – how many other examples are there in the corpus of someone who knew who killed the first victim becoming the second victim? or the third? Naomi Karn in ‘The Silent Speaker’ comes to mind.

And how about Louis Roney in ‘The Final Deduction’? Or Vaugn the car dealer’s son.

Or Scovil in TRB (sort of).

I’m sure there are at least 10 others

(100 points or ten points apiece)

…..

1) If you read nothing else read chapters 9&10.

2) I told you some one would be eliminated as a suspect

3) Was Old Clivers really honked off about the homework or was it just a
clever ploy to stall for time because he hadn’t finished writing the
summary? (35 points)

Hmmmm – two maybe three of you have done your homework based on both the show of hands and the number of on-topic posts.

Well, I lied about c9 being the best one – it is c10 as was pointed out. BUT you can’t go to c10 until you have read c9. So, I’ll postpone chapter nine until tomorrow and give all (or most) of you a chance to atone for your sins.